Younger cancer patients more open to alternative therapies

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) – Cancer patients under age 65 are much more likely than older people to explore alternative and complementary medicine for easing their symptoms and side effects of treatment, a new study suggests. “We found that the baby boomers are much more likely to use complimentary and alternative therapies than their parents in part due to a social change in the U.S. in the 60s and 70s with a big social movement toward things like a macrobiotic diet and yoga that made these things more mainstream,” said senior study author Dr. Jun Mao, director of integrated oncology at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Mao and colleagues surveyed adults with breast, lung and gastrointestinal tumors who were treated at the cancer center between June 2010 and September 2011.